Tulane Green Wave Two-Way Player Records 10th Save In Breakout Junior Season

The Tulane Green Wave's two-way player recorded his 10th save of the year Friday night, the next milestone in a breakout junior year.

The Tulane Green Wave baseball program gathers in prayer moments before it takes the diamond. | Tulane Athletics

While Shohei Ohtani is recovering from Tommy John surgery to return to being a two-way player at the Major League level, the Tulane Green Wave have gotten contributions on the mound and at the plate from a two-way player of their own, Michael Lombardi.

Lombardi, a junior out of Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York, has been with the Green Wave for all three years of his collegiate tenure. While his first two seasons were solid, Lombardi has experienced a breakout campaign in 2025.

It has culminated in reaching a season milestone for the junior on Friday night. In a 3-2 victory over the Memphis Tigers on the road, Lombardi recorded his 10th save of the year by striking out the side.

Michael Lombardi Having Breakout Junior Campaign

Lombardi, 21, has been a big part of the Tulane roster this year. On the mound, he has pitched to a 1.61 ERA across 28 innings in 19 games with 53 strikeouts, a 1.071 WHIP, and 10 saves. The ERA, saves, and WHIP are all career highs, while the strikeouts tie a career high he set last year, with five more games left this season to top it.

At the plate, the junior has batted .273/.392/.453 with 15 extra-base hits, 29 RBI, and more walks than strikeouts (22 walks, 17 strikeouts) across 174 plate appearances. His 34 runs scored this year are a career high, and he is on pace to set new career-best marks in hits and OPS.

Lombardi has been inundated with accolades throughout his career to this point, and that does not look to be slowing down anytime soon. In high school, he was a three-time All League, a two-time All Section, a two-time League MVP, a Section One MVP as a Junior, and a two-time All County.

At the collegiate level, Lombardi has earned AAC All-Academic Team honors, a Second Team All-AAC selection, and was ranked among the top 100 relievers in the nation by D1 Baseball ahead of the 2025 season.

It has been a stellar year for Lombardi. If he can keep up this breakout performance in the future, he will only be raising his MLB draft stock.